Half naked and tired, Kagami came home with a bag of food and some pants that the nice shopkeeper gave him. While he didn’t have money on him, the shopkeepers knew him and added it to Walnut’s tab. He had announced his arrival with a simple “I’m home” and dropped the bags in the kitchen. His intent was to get a bath before cooking, but he stopped in the den with four pairs of eyes staring at him.

But it was only one pair that drew his attention. With the soft lights crackling from the fireplace, he now confirmed that the woman in front of him not only had his wife’s face, but she also had a wolf ears on the top of her head.

For a moment his wife blended into his view.

“Asa-”

He would have been killed again if the bloodlust hadn’t snapped him out of it.

The woman pulled her sword from her shadow, the air snapped like lightning as she did it. A piece of her cheek broke off and fell. When it hit the ground, it shattered. The bear yelled for her to stop. Kagami saw the blade’s path and arched his back. His body moved painfully slow, but it was fast enough to avoid his neck from being sliced. The tip dug into his left cheek leaving a line of red that reached his ear.

Kagami took a couple of steps back, and the woman pointed her black sword at him.

“How are you still alive?” She seethed, every hair on her tail stood up. “I killed you!”

“You did.” Kagami met her gaze. He held up his hands, but not in an act of surrender like she was thought. “Can you put the sword down? Let’s sit down and talk.”

But to catch the sword as she as she drew it in a downward arc as he tried to speak to her. Kagami’s hands moved so slowly. It pained him as much as having the sword slice through his brain. But inch by inch, he had timed it perfectly, the hands clapped together, catching the black blade. He wrenched it aside. The blade clattered on the ground near the fireplace.

“Now come. Sit. We can talk about it.”

He motioned for her to sit.

“Do you think, just because you took my sword, I’ll stop? You think it just ends like that?” She snarled at him, sweeping her hand out.

Kagami stood still. The way she looked at him so much hatred, felt like a hammer to his glass heart. Never could he have imagined his wife making a face at him like that. Yet, here he was witnessing it. He never wanted to see something like that again.

The black sword in the corner of his eyes shook, melting into a shadow. The crack on her face spread forming a web, as the sword materialized in her hand. Before she could cut down on try again, the bear tackled and pinned her down.

“Get off of me!” She screamed at him. “Kenichi get off of me now!”

“Calm yourself, Yoru,” the giant said. “If you go any further, you will turn to ashes, and if that happens, everything will be for naught.”

“As long as I can kill him, then it’s all worth it!” Madness tugged her lips into a smile.

“If you die, then who will save Aria!”

She looked into the eyes of her comrade and then at Kagami. Warring interests battled within her. She stopped her struggle, and hand with her sword went limp. For now, she abandoned her the thought of killing him.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. Walnut gave him a smile and thrusting a towel and bowl with a bar of soap in his hands. The bandit pointed at the door behind him.

“Take a bath.”

#

A bath was nice. Even if it was in a wooden barrel. From his world to this world, when he fought he got dirty. He slapped his face full of hot water as if to wash his thoughts away. The woman sitting in the den had his wife’s face. She had tried to kill him. He needed to be prepared.

That wasn’t too different from his wife. When they met, she had been one of the many assassins that had been hired by the Yakuza to kill him. Among the handful they had hired, she had been one of the ones that came closet to ending his life.

Kagami leaned back, looking up at the ceiling, a plume of steam drifting upward. His heart was racing, sweat and water dripped from his face.

Was she Asa?

Her hair was a different color from her golden one. Her eye color too. Asa’s had been red. She definitely didn’t have ears or a tail or have a sword that came out of her shadow.

But he looked completely different from his former self.

He closed his eyes and opened them up again. Resolute in a way a condemned man faced death. He needed to look the truth clear in its eyes and find out.

The water splashed as he stepped out of the tub.

#

“Yoru,” Kenichi got her attention. His face was as solemn and still as a rock. “Temper your anger. Do not try to kill him, yet.”

Yoru snorted. “Tell me, Kenichi. If the you were to face the person that did that Aria and they were taking a bath while we sat down waiting for them, would you not kill them?”

Kenichi folded his arms. “I’d kill them.” His voice quiet.

At the very least, she appreciated his straightforwardness.

“Can you really tell me not to kill him then?”

“I understand, but you must not.”

But she also hated his straightforwardness.

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The wolf had almost risen to her feet, seething with anger, but stayed sitting down. The giant man behind them took a swig of what Yoru was starting to suspect was a flask filled with an endless supply of whiskey. The Bandit King leaned forward in his seat, his great axe laying across his lap.

“It wouldn’t be polite to kill a naked man would it?” His breath smelled like a brewery.

“It’s more than he deserves.” Yoru growled.

“I won’t allow that in my home.” His fingers tapped on his axe’s face.

“You know who he is don’t you? He’s Cedar Oswell. The Flame Prince. Do you know how many people suffered because of him? How many towns were turned to ashes because of him?”

“That’s what you say, but we don’t really know who he is. After all, he didn’t come down the elevator. He dropped down. The processing center on the surface never sent us information about him, so, he’s not a prisoner like the rest of us. He’s just trapped down here like the rest of us.” Walnut gave a smarmy smile.

“Bullshit!” Anger flared forward. Kenichi grabbed her shoulder, looking at her with his usual stone stare. She slammed her fist in the floor, her head hung down and her hair covering her face. “This isn’t fair.”

“No one said it was,” Kenichi said. “I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t fair at all. How could she hold back? When the goddess had given her another chance to inflict pain on the man that took everything away from her?

The door to the bathing room opened and her greatest enemy stepped out.

#

His beating heart had and breath stopped when he stepped out of the bathroom. No, that wasn’t it. Time moved slower when he met her gaze. Everything about that face was his wife’s. His eyes were hot with tears and as he blinked, they streamed down his cheeks and fell off his face.

The woman with his wife’s face leaned away from him, shocked at his display. What else could he do? How long had it been since he had seen her face? How many times had he dreamed it? Memories that felt like it had happened yesterday but slipped through his fingers like water.

His mind felt blank, but the question he wanted to ask left his lips before he could think.

“Are you my wife? Are you Asa?”

Her face went from shock and then to pure disgust.

“Wife? I would never be your wife!”

He had to admit, that hurt. Seeing her face look at him at him like a fly that landed on her plate, to the voice holding such contempt and hatred for him. It felt like…well, when she stabbed his heart. He gave a low chuckle forcing a himself to smile.

“I see. Of course it wouldn’t be you. I wouldn’t be that fortunate would I?”

Yoru regarded him closely. She looked slightly confused at his odd reaction. “Are you crying?”

To that Kagami touched his eyes, feeling hot tears against his finger tips. “Ahhhh, I guess I am.”

“Yo-you, don’t think you trick me Cedar! Save your crocodile tears. This is an act isn’t it? To confuse me! You think you can go ahead and claim you don’t remember anything? Even if you did, it doesn’t change the fact that you did it!”

“Yoru.”

Kenichi clutched her shoulder, but she shrugged his grip off. She stood up and met his gaze with her own. Hatred blazed in those black eyes, but what was he supposed to do? All those horrible things that the former owner of the body had caused, it wasn’t his responsibility to take up.

“My name is Kagami. I’m a man from another world trapped inside the prince’s body,” Kagami said to her. “Whatever this man has done, it is none of my concern. All I want is to escape this place and find a way back home.”

There he had said it. For a moment, the burning hatred within the woman’s eyes were blown away, but it wasn’t confusion that had taken its place. To his ridiculous introduction, she threw back her head and howled in an uneven and unpleasant laughter.

“Really?” She said, wiping a tear off her face. “I see. I see. So that’s how it is?”

Her laughter stopped as suddenly as it started. The jagged smile on her face looked like it had been cut by a knife. She bared her teeth.

Kagami felt his heart race. She intended to kill him, but turning his back against her would only embolden her, just like a wolf did to its running prey. Kagami stood his ground as she drew closer with murder in her eyes.

This was bad, if she did that, the penalty would be invoked.

"Wait! If you do that-”

Her claws scrapped the air. Kagami leaned his head back, hearing her nails scrap the very air. She didn’t stop there. She rotated, sweeping his legs. Kagami hopped over it and she brought her hands together, shaping it like a wolf’s open jaw.

She leapt towards him and Kagami caught her blow, intertwining his fingers with his own claw. When they landed, she tried to pull away from him, but Kagami would not let that happen.

“Let go!” She growled, throwing in a knee. Kagami blocked it with his own.

“No. Not unless you promise to calm yourself.”

“I. Will. Never. Be. Calm.” She seethed.

“Attacking me will invoke a penalty.” Kagami yelled., glancing back at Walnut. The bandit was deciding whether to stand up or not, and heft his axe at the mad wolf. “If you continue to attack me, then you’ll be killed.”

“If it means dragging you to hell with me, then I don’t mind killing you over and over again!” She yelled.

“Yoru!” The stiffened at the bear’s yell. She looked back at him. He folded his arms, giving a mom’s disappointment. “Remember your word.”

With that, her strength slackened and sensing their fight was over, Kagami let her hands go. She stumbled back over to where she had sat, looking like a child that had been scolded by her father. When she sat back down, Kenichi gazed at Kagami with his brown eyes.

“You mentioned a penalty. When I asked about it, we never got a straight answer on what could be considered violent.”

“I’m not sure myself. I think we’re good as long as no one was injured, but Walnut can answer more,” Kagami stroked his chin and looked over to one of the members of the council.

Walnut had fallen asleep at some point during their fight. His mouth open. The flask opened hung loosely in his hand, ready to hit the ground at moment’s notice.

Kagami took the flask, putting it on a table. Then he turned to their three guests.

“Did he tell you where you guys would be staying?”

“No.”

“I see.” Kagami turned to the Great Bandit King. He rose his hand and gave the him a good ole slap to wake him up.

#

Walnut had not been able to lead them to the house they were staying at. After getting the information, Cedar had led them to a small house in the corner. He handed Kenichi the keys and told them to come back in the morning when Walnut would have his wits about him.

Then, he left.

And it took everything she had not to chase after that back and kill him again and again like he deserved.

“I’m sorry,” Kenichi turned to her. She could see the sincerity in his eyes.

She blew out a sigh. “That’s unfair. You know I can’t get mad at you. Even if you won’t let me kill him.”

“You already did.” Kenichi pointed out. “You killed him and butchered his body into mincemeat, then kicked his head over the crevice.”

“He’s not dead though.” Frustration tightened her throat. “He doesn’t deserve to. After killing Elm? He gets to conveniently forget everything awful he did, and gets to be immortal?”

Tears dripped from her eyes. She had thought she had cried it all away, yet it surprised her to see how much it angered her, and how much it saddened her to see him alive…again.

“It should be Elm that’s alive, not him.”

The bear laid a hand on her shoulder. He looked down at her offering her hope.

“I promise, you can kill him later, but not now,” he said looking up at the sunroots. The light was dim, an indication it was night on the surface. “He’s strong isn’t he?”

Yoru hacked up a cough. “What?”

“He was able to meet you blow to blow. When you killed him, he would have caught your sword, but was distracted by your face.”

“That…” she went silent in thought. No, it was true wasn’t it? If she hadn’t been so drowned in her emotions, she would have noticed. “He dodged a lethal blow from my surprise attack too.” Remembering when she stabbed him through the back. She was sure she had aimed for his heart.

“He believes himself to be from another world.”

She snorted at that. “Fat chance. There hasn’t been someone from another world since the path was sealed. The only ones left are ones like the Eternal Queen.”